An Exhibition of Shona Stone Sculptures
Presented by The Sculpture Park
17th July to Tuesday 30th September
VIEW SCULPURES IN THE SPIRIT IN STONE EXHIBITION >
These are not just sculptures.
They are stones that breathe stories. Stones that carry the weight of resilience, the shape of persistence, and the quiet defiance of those who carve beneath an unforgiving sun.
Under the vast Savanna sky at the Sanganai Sculpture Academy in Guruve, deep in rural Zimbabwe, where shade is a memory and shelter a luxury, artists work. They bend over raw stone, eyes squinting in the glare. The sun scorches not just skin, but spirit, as relentlessly as the hardships that cling to their daily lives. And yet, they carve.
These sculptors have no studios. They create beneath open skies, exposed to all the elements. No roof. No workshop. No nearby well. The water they need, to drink, to work, to live, must be fetched from faraway sources, carried back in buckets and bottles to those who wait and hope for their safe return. These are young men and women whose only hope lies in stone.
Beside them stand forty women. Some are widows of sculptors lost too soon. Others are grandmothers raising grandchildren orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept through this land like wildfire. These women are caretakers of memory and of community. They sculpt, sand, polish, and manage small sales. They cook shared meals when food is available. They bring wisdom, laughter, and resilience to a place where formal support has long been absent.
Together, over sixty souls form a living ecosystem of creativity and survival.
Their needs are basic, yet unmet.
– Shade to work under.
– Clean water to drink.
– Kitchen.
– Toilets.
The simplest tools to shape a better life.
And still, they persist, with dignity, discipline, and the spirit in stone.
Each blow of the hammer echoes a deeper truth:
That art can rise from adversity.
That beauty can bloom in drought.
The chisels biting into stone mirror the ache of empty stomachs, the long endurance of hands that shape despite thirst, despite heat, despite loss.
Metal strikes stone. Flesh strikes challenge.
Sweat pours down brows like silent prayers, cooling neither man nor tool, but binding both in shared purpose. Binding team to stone.
To land. To each other.
In every sculpture, there is a testament.
In every crack and curve, a story.
In every polished surface, a reflection of unyielding strength.
Their work speaks of spirits, seasons, ancestors, and endurance.
Behind every sculpture that finds its way into a gallery or a collector’s hands, there is a history of hope, one too often unseen.
Spirit in Stone Exhibition, is a tribute to them, to their incredible endurance and their collective power.
Each sculpture on display is not only a work of beauty, but also a cry for help, and a call for solidarity.
The funds raised through this event will go directly toward building shaded working areas, a well to provide clean drinking water, kitchen, toilets and tools.
Spirit in Stone is their voice, their soul, their call.
Let the stone speak.
Let the spirit rise.
May you not only see these works, but feel them.
Why Visit the Exhibition?
– Proceeds from ‘Spirit in Stone’ support the Sanganai Sculpture Academy
– Affordable and investment artwork available
– Live Sculpting on-site
– Hundreds of beautiful traditional and contemporary works to see!
When you purchase a sculpture, you do more than acquire a beautiful work of art. You become part of this story. Your support helps fund clean water, shaded workspaces, and essential resources for over sixty people who live by the strength of their hands and the spirit in stone.
You take home more than a sculpture.
You take home a story of resilience.
A testament to survival.
A piece of a legacy carved from adversity and transformed into timeless beauty.
Spirit in Stone Exhibition runs from Thursday 17th July to Tuesday 30th September